Wayne Whitney wrote:
On 2005-03-01, homeowner wrote:


But I believe that laminate nose pieces are designed such that risers
are placed immediately behind the nose projection, which result in a
short fininished nose.


Given that you have a 1 1/4" nosing on the rough tread, would you be
cutting off this overhang in order to use the laminate nose piece this
way? The reason you can't find a laminate nose piece with a 1" nosing
is, I assume, that the laminate core material is not strong/thick
enough to support such an overhang.

I'm pretty sure that the 1997 UBC requires 3/4" to 1 1/4" nosing, so
if you use the laminate nose piece the way you describe, it would not
be compliant. You'd need to figure out a way to retain the rough
nosing and wrap it with laminate.


The hardwood treads would usually be 3/4" in thickness. There are one
piece tread that includes a nose area at Home Depot. The thickness is
1"+. That will throug riser size by more than 1" - top step would be
1" less and bottom step would be 1" more.


Since you mentioned your rough tread is about 1" thick, how about
removing the rough (plywood?) tread and using a hardwood tread in
place of it?


That will be really a tough job, as the plywood stair is pre-fabrcated
at factory.


Another consideration is cost


I was under the impression those special laminate nose pieces are
quite expensive, so that at the end of the day hardwood treads would
not be so much more. But I haven't priced them.

Best of luck.

Cheers, Wayne

Actually, using the prefinished hardwood tread is not that expensive, if
I can replace the plywood with the hardwood. I once asked a contractor
who said that he can remove the rough treads with hardwood treads. He
suggested to use carpet after looking at the stair - so I decided to do
it by myself with laminate.

Now I am thinking to it, I think I will just wrap around the rough nose
part with laminate, then use a corner trim piece to cover the
horizontal/vertical joint. If I can find some 2"x2" corner pieces that
are 1/4" or less thick, then I am in business.

Home Depot has 1 1/8" x 1 1/8" x 1/4" corner trims. If I can't find
2"x2" ones, I might use that. I am not sure how the nose would look
at end though.

Thanks,

J.